Kobo Reports 400% Growth in eBook Sales, 160% Growth in eReader

Kobo announced today that they've seen stellar growth in the past year. eBook sales and sales of the Kobo Touch are both up significantly. What's more, Kobo has nearly quadrupled their user base, with the number of people reading with Kobo internationally reportedly being up by 280%.

"It's become increasingly clear that the world of eReading is the way of the future and as technology continues to break down geographic borders, Kobo is excited to lead the charge into new markets and continue to shape the future of the multi-billion dollar eReading industry, " says Michael Serbinis, CEO of Kobo. He added, "Strong eReader growth is projected by IDC for the European market; with sales increasing over 400% to 9.6-million devices expected in market by 2015. We expect Kobo's trajectory for international growth and user adoption to quickly meet and exceed market projections.

Kob was bought by Rakuten in the fall of 2011, and both parties are expecting that it will offer unparalleled opportunities to extend Kobo's reach through Rakuten's other subsidiaries, including some of the world's largest international e-commerce companies like Buy.com and Play.com.

Kobo plans to build on its relationship with Rakuten by first launching in Japan, where Rakuten has a solid presence in the online retail market. That launch has been in the works since January, and there's no news on when it will happen. Further launches are planned for Portugal, Spain, Italy, but given that those sites were supposed to launch last fall and actually have been in the works for over a year I'm not sure when we will see them.

Kobo's other international expansions all happened much faster, with a local ebookstore launched in Germany as well as partnerships in France (FNAC), UK (WHSmiths), and the Netherlands (Libris Blz). Kobo also has local partners in NZ and Australia.

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Nate Hoffelder is the founder and editor of The Digital Reader:"I've been into reading ebooks since forever, but I only got my first ereader in July 2007. Everything quickly spiraled out of control from there. Before I started this blog in January 2010 I covered ebooks, ebook readers, and digital publishing for about 2 years as a part of MobileRead Forums. It's a great community, and being a member is a joy. But I thought I could make something out of how I covered the news for MobileRead, so I started this blog."